Friday, December 31, 2010

This is where my mind has been for the last few days... well and truly on holiday.

After a very socially exhausting Christmas celebration (ate too much, drank too much, stayed up too late, ate some more, drank some more, the usual...) we have done almost nothing. A lot of sleeping, reading, pottering and playing with the boys... the most time we have ever spent at home on holiday.

Luckily I have the ability that only the truly slothful and slovenly have of letting the house slide into a total shambles and not really worry about it. I finally cooked a meal last night after we started looking a little like Captain Cook's scurvy-ridden crew.

It's doubled in height since I took this pic a week ago... a smattering of classics, some comfort reads from this list and a couple of great girly page turners recommended by Jane at My Pear Tree House. I'm still about three years behind and have just started THE book of book clubs in 2008... The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Most of my current books are from the Auckland library... their online order service is fabulous particularly if you have a want-to-read list at hand. So that is my summer task... compiling my own list from all the wonderful lists that journalists just love to fill their blogs and columns with at this time of year.

The Australian TV journo Leigh Sales styles herself (when blogging) as the well readhead and she is both auburn haired and well read. Her list is here.

Also from the ABC in Australia is this list of Christmas gift recommendations compiled with the help of a couple of Sydney's best known book sellers.

The contributors to The Big Apple's finest, the New Yorker's are here - quite a mixed bag as you'd expect.

I also quite liked this list from Stephen Romei in The Australian - he looks back at 2010 and forward to 2011 with a nice little blurb about each book.

And if you like a Top 50 list then the Booktopia blog is publishing the 50 must-read Australian novels... I am never sure about these lists - mostly they just start arguments.

So Happy New Year to you... thank you for all your comments, emails and conversations in 2010. I have loved it. My New Year's gift to you (and myself) will be a reading list for 2011... it'll be on the blog, um soon... sometime early in 2011. Just have to drag my mind off that hammock.

Your reading list looks a little meatier than mine. I am reading the 9th book in the rangers apprentice series which we bought to encourage our 12 year old to read. The whole family has got in on the act. I am quite enjoying them. In between I read the odd chick lit and then maybe something a bit meatier. I will have to check out your lists so I can go to bookclub all preparted next year. Happy New Year to you. Deb

You know it's time to get off the hammock when your 16 yo is asking for clean underwear! But still I feel no guilt :o)Have a safe and happy New Years Eve Ann. You'll get there 3 hours before we do. I used to love that about living in NZ (here I go again....)Anyway, all the best for 2011. Í'm looking forward to seeing what you get up to.AngexPS I'm going to start using my new notebook tomorrow :o)

Ah, Ann, good for you for actually planning ahead. Whether you'll see it through and if so, in what timeframe, is immaterial - at least you have a plan.

I, meanwhile, have a shelf-full of lovely books begging to be read. But I can't get organised enough to even *remember* to read them, let alone actually *do* it! Keep inspiring me in 2011, my old friend. J x

Resolutions in April and a messy house - we must be birds of a feather. I am making an effort to read novels again after quietly slipping into a diet of magazines, blogs and newspapers after having children. But I'm ready for more of a commitment now so I'll be looking out for your list. I've recently started "A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth - only about a decade too late - and it might just take me a decade to finish it but I am determined to see it through. Actually I'm loving it. Happy New Year Ann!

I can't wait for your reading list. I bought two books whilst away for Christmas reading and joked with Stu that all I seemed to do was move the book to where I was sitting, rather than read it, as children and babies to be fed kept grabbing my attention! Here's hoping I can read them soon! Happy new year Ann, love sharing the year with you. Hugs, Emma.

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'A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.'

Virginia Woolf, 1929

I have neither so I blog.

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Reading...

What I've just read...

A book club choice but I recommend. It's set in Perth during the post war polio outbreak. I like her writing (others do too - she won a few awards) and it prompted me to read much more about the polio outbreak.

What I'm reading...

The Golden Age - Joan London

The Secret Place - Tana French

I've read all her books this summer and this is the last - a new to me crime writer. She's Irish and it's not the usual gritty tortured detective noir.

What I'm reading next...

Commonwealth by Ann Pratchett, by next Wednesday for bookclub... I like to live on the edge and will probably start it on Monday.